New Delhi, Nov. 26: Chief Justice of India Y.K. Sabharwal today said there was no question of the judiciary “over-stepping” its limits nor of any clash with the executive.

At the National Conference on Legal Empowerment on November 10, President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam had said: “How can you expect the executive to be independent when each of its actions is questioned'” The reference was to the large number of PILs filed in courts.

Sabharwal, who was in the audience when Kalam spoke, said in his Law Day address at the Supreme Court today that the judiciary is not encroaching upon the functions of either the legislature or the executive.

“I would like to only say with utmost humility that the judiciary in some cases has only emphasised on constitutional provisions' by highlighting the express as well as implied intention of (the) Constitution draftsman which for some or the other reason remained unimplemented at the hands of the executive,” Sabharwal said.

The Supreme Court has amplified the scope of fundamental rights and elevated some of the directive principles of state policy, he added. He said it was “natural that everybody would not be pleased with all the decisions of the judiciary”.

“In judiciary, we have no place for diplomacy. In very nature of our duties and functions, someone is bound to be displeased, but that is unavoidable,” Sabharwal said, in a veiled reference to the President whose address has triggered a debate in judicial circles.

On maintaining a balance between the three pillars of democracy ' legislature, executive and judiciary ' law minister Hans Raj Bhardwaj said: “Sometimes attempts are made to confuse public mind about the role of the three wings of the state. We hear criticism that the executive is running the country at the expense of Parliament or that the courts are running the country at the expense of Parliament and the executive.”